Remember the days of the Microsoft Cash Back deals?

Big80s

I remember getting 25% back from time to time. It made eBay bucks look like chump change. Those were the days. *single tear*

mrmint23

Those were the days of extremely HIGH buy it nows...But you could still find very nice cards for a discount.

Big80s

Let's be honest - most BIN's are still pretty high.

jeffcbay

Ahhhh yes, back when Bing was 25-30% cashback... when I was selling $500 ebay gift cards for over $600. For every $500 GC I sold, I would earn $60 in free gas (from the grocery store "fuel perks" where I bought the GC), on top of the profit from each GC. I went 8 months without having to pay for gas (and I was driving a Suburban with a 42-gallon tank). Those were the days!

Big80s

The program was supposed to be a stimulus, and more likely a way to promote Bing.com. I loved the rebates, but Bing.com is still worthless.

jeffcbay

Bing paid my wife's (large) company to use their search engine exclusively. They do suck. Only use them for their map's bird's eye view, but Google Maps added something similar/better.

70ToppsFanatic

<< <i>Ahhhh yes, back when Bing was 25-30% cashback... when I was selling $500 ebay gift cards for over $600. For every $500 GC I sold, I would earn $60 in free gas (from the grocery store "fuel perks" where I bought the GC), on top of the profit from each GC. I went 8 months without having to pay for gas (and I was driving a Suburban with a 42-gallon tank). Those were the days! >>



Giant eagle stopped carrying the eBay gift cards a while back. It was more like 14.4% back in free gas but I played that game with their gift cards and avoided paying for gas for nearly 2 years. Contemplating a bathroom remodel now and those home depot/lowes gift cards are calling out to me, "...think of the free gas...."

I guess there are still ways to relive the past

bking

Just another blatant bit of evidence that Microsoft is truly a Monopoly, regardless of what the tech-naive courts said. Offering huge discounts like that to drive traffic to a non-moneymaking search engine would never make business sense to any other company.

jeffcbay

<< <i>

<< <i>Ahhhh yes, back when Bing was 25-30% cashback... when I was selling $500 ebay gift cards for over $600. For every $500 GC I sold, I would earn $60 in free gas (from the grocery store "fuel perks" where I bought the GC), on top of the profit from each GC. I went 8 months without having to pay for gas (and I was driving a Suburban with a 42-gallon tank). Those were the days! >>



Giant eagle stopped carrying the eBay gift cards a while back. It was more like 14.4% back in free gas but I played that game with their gift cards and avoided paying for gas for nearly 2 years. Contemplating a bathroom remodel now and those home depot/lowes gift cards are calling out to me, "...think of the free gas...."

I guess there are still ways to relive the past >>



Yeah when GE dropped the ebay gift cards, I started buying KMart cards, and took them over there to buy the ebay cards. The two stores were less than a mile apart, so it wasn't so bad. Now I go to Office Max to do the GC swap. It's worth the effort.

bking

<< <i>

<< <i>

<< <i>Ahhhh yes, back when Bing was 25-30% cashback... when I was selling $500 ebay gift cards for over $600. For every $500 GC I sold, I would earn $60 in free gas (from the grocery store "fuel perks" where I bought the GC), on top of the profit from each GC. I went 8 months without having to pay for gas (and I was driving a Suburban with a 42-gallon tank). Those were the days! >>



Giant eagle stopped carrying the eBay gift cards a while back. It was more like 14.4% back in free gas but I played that game with their gift cards and avoided paying for gas for nearly 2 years. Contemplating a bathroom remodel now and those home depot/lowes gift cards are calling out to me, "...think of the free gas...."

I guess there are still ways to relive the past >>



Yeah when GE dropped the ebay gift cards, I started buying KMart cards, and took them over there to buy the ebay cards. The two stores were less than a mile apart, so it wasn't so bad. Now I go to Office Max to do the GC swap. It's worth the effort. >>



Tell me more about this process. I'm interested in any way to game the GC system.

jeffcbay

Giant Eagle has something called Fuel Perks. Right now they give you $0.10 off per gallon of gas for every $50 you spend (it used to be $0.20/gal). They also sell Gift Cards for practically every major store and restaurant. So say you want to buy a TV from Best Buy that costs $2000. Go buy Best Buy GCs from Giant Eagle, and you've earned yourself $4.00 PER GALLON of gas, up to 30 gallons ($120 max). Of course, GE recently stopped carrying Best Buy cards, but you get the idea. They also have Home Depot and Lowes.

The cashback thing is obsolete now, but back when Bing was doing that huge cashback, you could make a killing on selling GCs. Say you sell a $500 GC for $600. At 30% cashback, the buyer was earning $180 cashback, so essentially they were getting a $500 GC for $420 (well worth it). As a seller, I was clearing about $40 profit (after fees), on top of the $60 in fuel savings. It was the bomb. The most I ever sold a $500 GC for was about $645. Ebay rules stated you could only sell one per day or something like that, but I would sneak in 2 or 3 per day. Ebay emailed me a couple warnings, but nothing too serious. It was fun while it lasted!

mlbfan2

Remember when Paypal gave you $15 (then lowered to $5) for referrals? And, their slogan back then was "Always Free".

70ToppsFanatic

Jeff

Columbus is a test market for GE so we actually still get $0.20 in fuel perks credit for every $50 spent. And if you buy with a GE credit card then they add another $0.04 for each $50 spent

Big80s

Jeff - this is a great idea, I'm ashamed I'd never thought of it myself.

ndleo

<< <i>Just another blatant bit of evidence that Microsoft is truly a Monopoly, regardless of what the tech-naive courts said. Offering huge discounts like that to drive traffic to a non-moneymaking search engine would never make business sense to any other company. >>



Actually MSFT paying people to use their search engine is evidence that they are NOT a monopoly, at least in search. If they were a monopoly MSFT would be charging us to use Bing. Google is the monopoly in search and the courts will get them eventually.

shagrotn77

Ah yes, those were the days. When you found the right Buy it Now on eBay you could combine Bing cash back with another program, like Mr. Rebates or Big Crumbs, and get that on TOP of eBay Bucks and cash back rewards from your credit card. Knew it was too good to last.

bking

<< <i>

<< <i>Just another blatant bit of evidence that Microsoft is truly a Monopoly, regardless of what the tech-naive courts said. Offering huge discounts like that to drive traffic to a non-moneymaking search engine would never make business sense to any other company. >>



Actually MSFT paying people to use their search engine is evidence that they are NOT a monopoly, at least in search. If they were a monopoly MSFT would be charging us to use Bing. Google is the monopoly in search and the courts will get them eventually. >>



I disagee on thie first point. One of the core tenets of the DOJ cases against Microsoft was them wielding their massive control of the desktop market to force the competition (netscape at the time) out of the internet market. It was the contention of the DOJ that by allowing them to be so large that they could use their monoploy power in one market area in an attempt to take over another market area, this was an antitrust violation. That's basically what they were doing here - using the piles of cash they have accumulated in the desktop market to try and corner another market. The difference this time was that Google is a far more well-run and formidable foe than Netscape ever was.

ndleo

<< <i>

<< <i>

<< <i>Just another blatant bit of evidence that Microsoft is truly a Monopoly, regardless of what the tech-naive courts said. Offering huge discounts like that to drive traffic to a non-moneymaking search engine would never make business sense to any other company. >>



Actually MSFT paying people to use their search engine is evidence that they are NOT a monopoly, at least in search. If they were a monopoly MSFT would be charging us to use Bing. Google is the monopoly in search and the courts will get them eventually. >>



I disagee on thie first point. One of the core tenets of the DOJ cases against Microsoft was them wielding their massive control of the desktop market to force the competition (netscape at the time) out of the internet market. It was the contention of the DOJ that by allowing them to be so large that they could use their monoploy power in one market area in an attempt to take over another market area, this was an antitrust violation. That's basically what they were doing here - using the piles of cash they have accumulated in the desktop market to try and corner another market. The difference this time was that Google is a far more well-run and formidable foe than Netscape ever was. >>



How can MSFT be a monopoly in search Google owns 85% of the search market? Under your logic, no large company can ever do promotions to buy market share.

MSFT wasn't sued until they tried to suppress Netscape, until then there was no case. MSFT was never sued for antitrust because they had the dominant PC operating system. How is MSFT trying to suppress competition in search by doing cashback? You are mixing up apples and oranges.